1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an oven, specificly to a portable oven that cooks food by heating the oven over an open flame or burner.
2. Description of Prior Art
Various camping ovens have been developed, they are generally of the type which use folding metal sheets used as reflectors to concentrate an oven region within the reflectors. They are relatively heavy, bulky and not particularly suited for backpacking, bicycling, canoeing and other back-country travel.
Inventors have created other types of ovens designed for use over an open flame. U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,736 to Sharon (1982) discloses a complex oven for stove top cooking formed of an annuler base, a ting shaped main pan, and a lid. A second pan is also described, the secondary pan being placed in the upper portion of the main pan. This oven is hardly compact or light weight enough for use during back-country travel. Lerner (1993) was awarded U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,500 which discloses a complex oven formed of a high temperature convection dome, covered pot, reflector collar, and heat diffuser. The components are assembled to provide a convection path for heat to surround an oven device. This oven is complicated to use and lacks versatility for food preparation tasks other than baking.
The disadvantages of the prior art ovens are that they are heavy, bulky or contain many cumbersome parts. This can provide serious constraints to those who are under restrictions as to the amount of weight they can or are willing to carry with them, such as on a backpacking trip. Furthermore, prior art ovens have limited use for other tasks of food preparation such as boiling water, steaming foods or heating sauces. All portable ovens heretofore suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) Production cost is high.
(b) They are large or heavy.
(c) They are complicated to use.
(d) Food being cooked does not brown.
(e) Food being cooked becomes charred or burnt.
(f) They contain a large number of cumbersome parts.
(g) They have limited use for food preparation tasks other than baking.